NetBooks
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UMID mBook BZ two-fingers on
Oh UMID mBook BZ, it's not easy being the unwanted offspring of a netbook and a MID, is it? Well, it sure isn't easy on us either. After spending a bit of time with the hand-sized device, we just don't really see how anyone could use the small clamshell for more than a few minutes at a time. But hit the break for some hands-on impressions and a video of the $549 lilliputian laptop and decide for yourself. %Gallery-82385%
Gateway pumps out EC Series ultraportables
Gateway might want us to refer to its new EC Series laptops as ultraportables, but we're calling this one like we see it... it's almost a netbook, but not quite. Regardless, the just announced EC14D boasts and 11.6-inch display and, oddly enough, an integrated DVD drive. Weighing in at just around 3 pounds, the EC14D is light and thin... just like a small laptop should be. Internally, it's got an Intel Ultra Low Voltage Pentium Core CPU, a 320GB hard drive, up to 8GB of memory (in two 4GB modules), a multicard reader, and Windows 7 Home Premium. If you're filled with anticipation at the thought of this one, well, you won't have to wait long. It'll be available by the end of January for a starting price of $629.99. Full press release is after the break.
Intel launches AppUp Center app store for Atom-powered devices (updated with hands-on impressions)
We need app stores for everything, right?! Intel thinks so. Chipzilla has finally just launched the Atom app store in beta, which will not only come pre-installed on Atom netbooks from Samsung, ASUS and Acer, but will also be available for download for Windows and Linux. Intel's been working with over 3,000 devs, but there should be even more apps on the way. So, what are you waiting for? Hit the source link and go download the beta. %Gallery-82098% Updated: We downloaded the app store to an ASUS Eee PC 1005HA. Hit the break for our impressions.
Alienware M11X netbook gets official, costs less than a grand
Well, would you look at that: we've just gotten word on the M11X, a new Alienware netbook. It's got an 11.6-inch display, NVIDIA GT335M switchable graphics, a rumored 6.5 hours of battery life on integrated and "over 2 hours" on gaming mode. This bad boy will ship in the spring for less than $1,000. That's all we know for now, we'll update as we hear more.
Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3 and S10-3t hands-on
Don't worry Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3, we didn't forget about you -- even if we are totally smitten with your futuristic sibling the IdeaPad S1 Hybrid. The 10-inch S10-3 throws away the design of the S10 and S10-2 for a thinner body and a decorated lid, and we've got to say the 2.4 pound netbook felt quite light and sturdy in our hand. Under the lid we're loving the same chiclet style keyboard that we saw on the Skylight, though the touchpad with integrated mouse buttons is a bit small for our tastes. For $399 ($379 on Amazon) the S10-3 seems like it could be quite a worthy 10-inch netbook competitor, though we will have to see what its Intel Atom N470 and three-cell battery (there's an optional six-cell) provide in terms of battery life. The $499 S10-3t tablet version is going to take a bit more of a sell though. The convertible netbook (fine, netvertible) is thicker and heavier than the S10-3 largely due to its hinge and thicker touchscreen. But regardless of the somewhat awkward design (especially with a protruding six-cell battery strapped to its back), the capacitive touchscreen was quite responsive to our touches and gestures, and we're pretty impressed with Lenovo's Natural Touch interface that its got running on top of Windows 7 Home Premium. We also like that you can choose to flip the screen around and that the orientation will adjust automatically thanks to the accelerometer. But don't take our word for it, hit the break for a look at the finger-friendliness in in action. %Gallery-81638%
HP goes netbooks with Mini 2101, 210 and Compaq 201
Thought you were done with seeing the latest Pine Trail netbooks? How about some more from HP? The world's number one computer manufacturer has gone a bit netbook crazy with a slew of new models -- the HP Mini 2101, 210 and the Compaq 201 -- and that doesn't even include the business and education focused HP Mini 5102. The most exciting of the bunch are the HP Mini 210 and 2101 which share the same new design, rubbery feeling lid, and chicklet-style keyboard. Starting at $329, the 210 is available in the colors of the rainbow and packs a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 1GB of RAM and Windows 7 Starter. The $399 2101 is spec'd the same, but is aimed at a more professional user and is only available in black. Both will be available with Broadcom Crystal HD accelerators. The $229 Compaq 201 totally forgets that Intel has a new Atom chip and uses the older N270 processor, 1GB of RAM and Windows 7 Starter. Hit the break for full PR, some hands-on impressions and video. %Gallery-81604% %Gallery-81602%
MSI Wind U160 hands-on
We told you MSI was going to bring its Wind U160 to Vegas and we just some alone time with it. The design is obviously inspired by a Sony VAIO, with the glowing power light nestled in the hinge, though we wish they had mimicked Sony's matte lids -- the U160's glossy mocha-brown lid loves it some fingerprints. We're impressed with the thinness of the netbook and it felt pretty light in our hand. Unfortunately the chicklet keyboard doesn't feel as solid as the one on the Wind U135 and it's got some serious trampoline bounce. As for the internals, we've been told it will pack an 1.6GHz Intel Atom N450 CPU, 1GB of RAM and a Windows 7 Starter-booting 250GB hard drive all for $399. It could be a decent netbook player if its six-cell battery produces some solid battery life. Hit the break for the video. %Gallery-81569%
ASUS gets official with Eee PC 1008P Seashell: available in hot pink and coffee brown (updated: with video!)
Make no mistake, we've seen an Eee PC 1008 before -- but this whole "P" thing is just getting official today at CES. It's the same machine we saw leaked a few weeks back, and thankfully for those who dig the whole "vivacious" scene, it'll be available in both hot pink and coffee brown. Designed by Karim Rashid, ASUS' latest netbook gets powered by Intel's new Atom N450 processor and features a 10.1-inch display, Windows 7 Home Premium, 1GB of DDR2 memory, a 250GB hard drive, 802.11n WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 2.1, 1.3 megapixel camera, a 3-cell removable battery and a 2.5 pound chassis. We'll keep you posted on a price and release, but for now, have a gander at the press shots below. Update: We nabbed a quick hands-on and took a video of the new removable battery, check it below. %Gallery-81556% %Gallery-81563%
Samsung hops on Atom N450 bandwagon with N210, N220, N150 and NB30 netbooks
Keeping the news flowing fast and furious, Samsung has come out with a quartet of new netbooks, distinguishable primarily by their battery life. The N210 and 220 take the lead with a purported 12 hours of "connected mobility," while the NB30 (11 hours) and N150 (8.5 hours) are none too shabby either. The N150 differentiates itself with an "integrated hinge," while the NB30 focuses on durability with a HDD protection sensor and a water-tight seal that protects the netbook from up to 50cc of water. Still, the machines do share a lot, including an Atom N450 at their heart, and a 10.1-inch anti-reflective screen, plus -- you'd be better sit down for this -- mark- and scratch-resistant casing. Does this mean the end of the fingerprint-loving netbook? We can only hope so. Full PR blurb after the break.
Dell, Toshiba and Gateway Core i3 laptops get revealed early, joined by Pine Trail netbooks
And just like that, the CES 2010 on-switch has been well and truly pressed. After HP, Sony and Lenovo all exposed their hardware to the world prematurely, it was inevitable that other companies would "accidentally" follow suit. Thanks to CNET's snooping, we're now staring at a trio of new Core i3 models from Dell, Toshiba and Gateway -- highlighted by an unannounced ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 powering a 1600 x 900 15-inch display on the Gateway, which also squeezes 500GB of storage under a shockingly low $692 price tag. On the Atom front, the Mini 210 is joined by a Toshiba NB305 -- sporting the N450, 250GB HDD, up to 11 hours' claimed battery life, and a $438 sticker -- as well as Gateway's effort with a smaller 160GB HDD but also suitably reduced $285 asking price. Hit the links below to get freshened up on all the juicy details. Read - FutureShop.ca (Gateway NV5905H) Read - FutureShop.ca (Toshiba Satellite L500-00F) Read - Costco (Dell Inspiron 15) Read - FutureShop.ca (Gateway LT2102H) Read - FutureShop.ca (Toshiba NB305-00F)
Acer Aspire One AO532h joins the Pine Trail party with a $299 pricetag
It's about time that the number one netbook manufacturer officially release details on its Pine Trail packing netbooks. The 10-inch Acer Aspire One A0535h seems to look slightly different than its predecessors, but its brand new Intel Atom N450 CPU, GMA 1350 graphics and promised 10 hours of battery life should give it bragging rights at the family dinner table. The rest of the specs are standard fare – Windows 7 Starter, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, and a 4,400 mAh six-cell battery. We're impressed that Acer has seemed to finagle a $299 price tag, undercutting most of the competition -- including the $380 Pine Trail Eee PC 1005PE -- by at least $50. It should be available in the coming weeks, but in the meantime you can check the full PR after the break or start searching for that Amazon pre-order page.
Ion netbooks head-to-head: Atom, overcharged?
It's been more than a year since NVIDIA announced its Ion platform, promising to bring HD video and gaming to the underpowered Atom CPU. After all the hold ups, we started to wonder if we'd ever see the platform packed inside a netbook, so imagine our surprise when no less than four Ion-based machines launched in the past few months. With bigger screens, better specs, more graphics muscle and, of course, the resulting higher price tag, each of these Ion machines promises quite a bit, but which one lives up to the hype? We got them all together and spent the past few weeks testing the ASUS Eee PC 1201N, Lenovo IdeaPad S12, HP Mini 311 and the Samsung N510 -- follow on past the break for our complete faceoff. %Gallery-81099%
Samsung's Pine Trail-boasting N220 netbook spied in France
We've been seeing a fair amount of netbooks equipped with Intel's Pine Trail platform since they were announced early last week, and it looks like we're going to be seeing at least one from Samsung in the very near future. This one -- the N220 -- was just spotted in France. The 10.1-incher packs (as you'd expect) an Atom N450 CPU, GMA 3150 graphics, 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth, plus a webcam and a 6 cell battery which should supposedly get around eleven and a half hours of battery life. It comes with Windows 7 installed, and as you can see from the photo, one of the available colors will be glossy green. It's going for 350 euros in France, so, if the price stays comparable when (and if it) hits North American soil, we can expect it to cost somewhere in the realm of $500.
DisplaySearch says netbook sales will slow as ULV laptops get cheaper
Netbook sales have been on a solid upward tick for about as long as the product category has existed, so it shouldn't come as much surprise that research firm DisplaySearch is now forecasting that shipments will exceed a hefty 33.3 million units by year's end, which translates to a full 103% jump in growth over the previous year. What is somewhat surprising, however, is that the firm is also predicting that growth will slow considerably in 2010 (down to "just" 20%) as more and more laptops with ultra-low voltage processors dip under the $500 mark. Of course, 20% growth still means that netbook shipments should be in the neighborhood of 40 million for 2010, and DisplaySearch even estimates that growth will hold steady at about 20% for 2011, so we wouldn't be so quick to put them on deathwatch just yet.
Sheng T108 brushed aluminum netbook appears
Hey, now this isn't your average, everyday, boring netbook now is it? Well, at least not in looks, anyway. The Sheng T108, which has recently been spotted in Shenzhen, China, has a brushed aluminum chassis that makes it stand out from the crowd, to be sure. Internally, you'll find this 10.1-incher boasting an Intel Atom N280 CPU, 2GB of DDR2 memory, and a 250GB hard drive -- nothing volcanically surprising, but not too shabby either. It's also got a 3-cell battery, a VGA port, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi support, a built in webcam, and a SIM card slot for 3G connectivity. The pricing is said to be somewhere in the realm of $300, and while there's no word on availability of this puppy outside of China, we'll certainly keep our eyes peeled for you. One more shot after the break.
NVIDIA Ion 2 coming in early 2010, compatible with Pine Trail
Well, here we go: NVIDIA just gave us the heads-up that the next generation of Ion chips (which we'll be calling Ion 2 until it gets a proper name) will be compatible with Intel's new Pine Trail platform and arriving in Q1 of 2010. That's good news, seeing as the Pine Trail-based Eee PC 1005PE we just reviewed didn't offer much of a performance benefit over the older Diamondville chips and definitely couldn't bust through the first few seconds of a YouTube HD clip. Though we got NVIDIA to confirm that it'll improve some of the battery life concerns we've had, we couldn't get much out of them in terms of how Ion 2 will play with the Intel GMA 3150 GPU that's now integrated into the Atom N450 die. NVIDIA also didn't hold back when it came to Intel's reliance on third-party HD accelerator chips for video duties -- they think customers want richer gaming and multimedia experiences on netbooks than Atom alone can offer, and they don't seem to care that Intel keeps calling Ion "overkill." All drama aside we're looking forward to just getting some YouTube and Hulu HD playback on our netbooks -- we'll see what NVIDIA has to show off at CES.
MSI Wind U160 confirmed for CES, but we've got your first look right now
On the heels of getting our hands on the budget, Pine Trail-packing Wind U135, MSI gave us a heads up that at CES it'll be releasing the totally redesigned 10-inch Wind U160. The pictures make it look ever so trim and classy, though we can't help but notice the chassis' uncanny resemblance to the Toshiba Mini NB205. Under the lid it appears to have a chiclet keyboard and a touchpad that's only differentiated from the palmrest by a grid of raised dots (eh hem, ASUS). Inside it's got that 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor we've been hearing so much about and most likely the array of standard netbook specs. MSI claims the battery will last for more than 10 hours on a charge, and pricing for the U160 will start at around $350. We'll be bringing you more information and hands-on impressions out in Vegas, but in the meantime feast your eyes on the glamor shots below. %Gallery-80726%
ASUS Eee PC 1201N review
Six months ago netbooks all had 10-inch displays, fairly cramped keyboards, and couldn't manage to play a 1080p video even if they trained with the best of marathoners. The world's a lot different now: the King of Pop has passed away, the unemployment rate has dropped, and netbook manufacturers have realized 11- and 12-inch displays provide a more comfortable experience -- especially when paired with more powerful hardware that adds multimedia prowess. We'll stop there with the Netbook 101, but looking at the past is necessary in realizing what a game-changer the ASUS Eee PC 1201N really is. The 1201N's dual-core Intel Atom processor, NVIDIA Ion graphics, Windows 7 Home Premium, and 2GB of RAM make it the most powerful netbook to ever grace the purchase pages of Amazon. But does the $500 machine fix all the issues and frustrations we've ever had with netbooks when put to the test? Can it make us forget about cramped keyboards, strained eyes and sluggish video performance? Find out in our full review. %Gallery-80538%
Samsung planning tablets, multitouch, 3D, making LED backlighting standard
No heart-stopping new revelations here, but it's always good to get an official indication of a company's plans for the forthcoming year. Samsung, it appears, is firmly set on building and selling a tablet of some sort, whether it be a Joojoo-like buttonless wonder or a more conventional keyboard-equipped device. There's also a note on multitouch and 3D, with Sammy promising to introduce more mainstream displays with support for them, as well as converting all its laptop and desktop screens to LED backlighting from the middle of 2010 onwards. We're happy to see CCFL consigned to the annals of history, but Mr. Samsung, if you really want to excite us good and proper, you'd add an O to the front of that monitor technology and stick to the same schedule. [Thanks, Daniel]
EVERKI Camber is a netbook bag with a degree in ergonomics
The EVERKI Camber netbook case must have an inferiority complex. Why else, when every other netbook sleeve is designed to take up minimal space, does the Camber sport a large, bulging protrusion from one side? Well, you might say, it's designed to raise your netbook or ultraportable up to a more ergonomic 30 degree angle away from horizontality, but when was the last time you really regretted not owning a CushionSpeaker or a CushDesk? The more useful feature here, for us, is the space that bulge provides for storing your charger and AC plug (which can be horrifically huge in the UK), though whether the $49.99 price is justifiable, we leave up to you. Video demonstration awaits after the break.
